Electrical energy and distribution system

ABSTRACT

This invention concerns an electrical energy supply and distribution system. The system is able to handle both large centralized electricity generation plants, as well secondary energy sources which are becoming increasingly important. These sources may or may not be connected to deliver electrical energy to a 50 Hz AC power distribution grid. The system comprises a supply side where multiple electrical energy generators are connected via connections ports, involving conditioning circuitry, into a single DC electrical energy source. This energy source may be supplied to a common inverter system to convert it to AC for transmission on over a power grid. A rectifier may take the AC power from the grid and delivers it to loads. Whether an AC grid in involved or not, on the delivery side energy is delivered to multiple loads via connection ports involving conditioning circuitry. Any of the generators or loads may be taken offline or connected back into the system at will.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention concerns an electrical energy supply and distributionsystem.

BACKGROUND ART

Industrialised countries are heavily dependent on large centralisedelectricity generation plants to produce power. For example, 80% of theelectricity generated in Australia is produced by coal power plants.These power plants are usually built away from the cities where thepower is consumed.

In addition, secondary energy sources are becoming increasinglyimportant. Common renewable energy sources include photovoltaic (PV)solar cells, wind turbine generators, wave turbine generators and tidalturbine generators. These sources can be connected to deliver electricalenergy to the standard 50 Hz AC power distribution grid by means of ACinverter schemes designed to synchronize with the power grid.

Because the secondary sources deliver fluctuating amounts of energy,connection to the power grid invariably requires some energy storage,with an energy delivery time frame in the order of hours or days.Examples of storage systems include: high capacity batteries (electrical“flow batteries”), solar “molten salt”, solar hot water, and solargenerated biogas where electrical energy is generated in a secondaryprocess such as steam turbine generators. These schemes are relativelyexpensive and are only economically viable on large scale electricalpower systems.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention is an electrical energy supply and distribution system,comprising:

-   -   A direct current (DC) loop, having for supplying energy, plural        connection ports for selective connection to respective        electrical energy generators.

Wherein each connection port includes a bypass to allow direct currentto flow round the loop in the absence of a generator connected at thatport. And, Electricity conditioning circuitry to deliver and vary directcurrent power supply to the loop from a connected generator.

-   -   And,    -   For delivering energy, plural connection ports for selective        connection to respective electrical energy loads.    -   Wherein each connection port includes a bypass to allow direct        current to flow round the loop in the absence of a load        connected at that port. And, Electricity conditioning circuitry        to deliver and vary electrical power supply to a load connected        at the port.

By connecting multiple electrical generators in a series DC loop, theinvention is capable of delivering high voltage DC. The use of highvoltage reduces transmission loss due to the corresponding low current.Also the absence of reactive (inductance as well as capacitance) effectsassociated with AC power distribution systems improves the balance ofthe delivered power.

The total generated voltage in the DC loop provides a single electricalenergy source for storage, and seamless distribution to generators ofdifferent types and characteristics.

The loop may include all the energy sources collected together on a“supply side”, and all the inverters and loads separately collectedtogether on a “delivery side”. Or, the sources and loads may beinterspersed in any order around the loop.

The electricity conditioning circuitry on the supply side may involve aswitching regulator in boost mode. Other switching regulators such as aflyback regulator, a buck regulator and a bridge regulator may be used.The electricity conditioning circuitry allows variation in the DC loopvoltage by adjustment and synchronisation of the supply side connectionports.

A flyback regulator or bridge inverter may be used in conjunction with agalvanic isolation transformer. Such a configuration provides isolationof electrical energy generators (and loads) for safety or equipmentisolation purposes.

The electrical generators may be AC or DC electrical generators. Anelectrical generator may be a wind turbine, photovoltaic solar cells, adiesel power generator, a motor generator, a gas turbine, a steamturbine, a tidal turbine, a storage battery or a reticulated supply.

An AC electrical generator may be connected to the direct current loopvia a rectifier bridge that converts the AC power to DC. The rectifierbridge may also function as a bypass to allow direct current to flowround the loop if the generator is not available. Galvanic isolation mayalso be provided by the addition of a transformer between the ACgenerator and the rectifier

In addition the electrical generator may be an asynchronous inductiontype generator arranged with a reactive magnetising power (VAR)generator as described in our copending Patent Application No.

The bypass associated with a DC electrical generator may be a diode. Thediode may be forward biased when the generator is disconnected from theloop and vice versa.

Electrical energy storage devices, such as batteries and supercapacitors, may be included in the supply side. For instance they may beconnected into the supply side conditioning circuitry.

The energy produced by the multiple electrical energy generators maythen be supplied to a local or wide area distribution system.

On the delivery side, an AC load may be connected to the DC loop viaelectricity conditioning circuitry that involves an inverter thatconverts DC power to AC. Single and multiple phase AC and DC loads maybe connected into the series DC loop. Automatic synchronisation of thedelivery side inverters with a reticulated supply may be achieved thoughthe inverter control system.

A DC load may be connected using a switching regulator, which may beconfigured to boost up or buck down. A “flyback” switching regulator orbridge converter with a galvanic isolation transformer may also be usedto isolate a load.

The bypass device on the delivery side may be a transistor, a thyristoror a mechanical switch.

Electrical energy storage devices, such as batteries and supercapacitors, may be included in the delivery side. For instance they maybe connected into the conditioning circuitry, in particular through thedelivery side inverters or regulators.

The system allows electrical generators and loads to be connected anddisconnected without disrupting operation of other parts of the system.Flexibility to connect and disconnect generators increases systemreliability and availability while enabling easy maintenance andtroubleshooting. New generators and loads may also be added easily.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

An example of the invention will now be described with reference to theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an electrical energy supply anddistribution system exemplifying the invention.

FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram of a typical conditioning circuit.

FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram of another typical conditioning circuit.

FIG. 4 is a circuit diagram of the supply side of the system.

FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram of the delivery side of the system.

FIG. 6 is a circuit diagram of the delivery side incorporating batterystorage.

FIG. 7 is a circuit diagram of the delivery side comprising pluralparallel inverter outputs connected to individual primary windings of amulti-primary winding transformer.

BEST MODES OF THE INVENTION

Referring first to FIG. 1, the electrical system 10 comprises a supplyside 20 where, generally, multiple electrical energy generators 22 areconnected via connection ports 24, involving conditioning circuits 26and possibly additional conditioning circuitry 28, into a single DCelectrical energy source. This energy source is supplied to a commoninverter system 30 to convert it to AC for transmission on over a powergrid. A rectifier 32 takes the AC power from the grid and delivers it toAC and DC loads. On the delivery side 40 energy is delivered to multipleloads 42 via connections ports 44 involving conditioning circuits 46 andother conditioning circuitry 48.

In this way the electrical energy generators 22 are connected in aseries DC loop 50. Electrical circuit theory dictates that the currentin each part of the series DC loop 50 is the same but the voltagedeveloped by each generator is added together. The power delivered istherefore the product of the total voltage and the loop current.

The electrical energy generators 22 include, but are not limited tobeing: wind turbines; photovoltaic solar cells; storage batteries;ignition engine generator sets; diesel power generator; gas turbines;steam turbines; an asynchronous induction type generator and, areticulated supply. For example, these energy source may generate powersof up to 100 kWs or MWs and this is understood to be medium scale.

A typical conditioning circuit 26 will now be described with referenceto FIG. 2. In this example an AC electrical generator 22 is connectedvia rectifier 28 and a conditioning circuit 26 to connection port 24.The conditioning circuit 26 includes an over voltage or “surgesuppression” device, being a metal oxide varistor 102. Surge suppressiondevices are intended to protect the port connection circuits 20 fromdamage caused by excess voltage. Voltage surges may be caused bylightning strikes or switching high currents. Other examples of overvoltage protection devices include high power thryristor “diverter”switches, semiconductor avalanche devices and gas discharge devices.

An alternative conditioning circuit 26 is shown in FIG. 3. In thisexample an AC 15 electrical generator 22 is connected via rectifier 28and a conditioning circuit 26 to connection port 24. The conditioningcircuit 26 includes a DC power filter 104. DC power filters arecomprised of capacitors, inductors or combinations of both, and areapplied to limit the rate of change of voltage (dv/dt) across theconnection port 24 or rate of change of current (di/dt) in the DC loop50.

FIG. 4 shows exemplary circuitry of the supply side 20 (except for theconditioning circuit). A three-phase AC source 220, a single-phase ACsource 222 and two DC energy sources 224 and 226 are connected in seriesto form part of DC loop 50. For example, a DC energy generator may be asolar power panel.

Each AC energy source is first converted to DC using a rectifier bridge230. The flow of power from the rectifier bridge 230 is controlled usinga switching regulator to vary the source output voltage and power. Theswitching regulator may be either a voltage step up (up converter) orstep down (down converter) device.

For example, AC source 220 is connected, via a rectifier bridge 230, toa switching regulator 232 configured in voltage boost mode that takes DCinput voltage from the rectifier bridge 230 and produces a higher DCoutput voltage. The switching regulator shown 232 is a DC switchingdevice where energy is stored in the inductor duty part of theconversion cycle. Alternately the energy is delivered to the filtercapacitor C.

Some applications may require galvanic (electrical isolation) of theenergy source for safety or electrical equipment isolation purposes. Toachieve this, high speed switching regulators may be used in conjunctionwith a high frequency isolation transformer. As shown in FIG. 4, DCsource 226 is connected to a “flyback” switching regulator 234 with agalvanic isolation transformer 238.

Other switching regulators such as buck, buck-boost, push-pull andbridge-type regulators may be used.

The rectifier bridge 230 that is used in conjunction with an AC energygenerating source also enables dynamic connection and disconnection ofthe source without disturbing the continuity of the series loop circuit.When the generator is disconnected or no power is being generated, thecurrent simply commutates through the DC rectifier diodes via therectifier DC connections.

In the case where the source is a single phase DC source 224, ananti-parallel bypass diode or reverse connected diode 226 provides apath for the loop current when the generated DC generating source isremoved or is not generating. Both switching regulators 232, 234 arealso shown connected to an anti-parallel bypass diode 236 to providecontinuous DC connection.

When a generator is reconnected, the bypass diode is reverse biased bythe generated voltage.

The structure of the series connected energy sources provides for theinclusion of electrical energy storage batteries. These batteries maydeliver energy to any or all devices in the loop 50.

On the distribution side 40, various AC and DC loads may be connectedinto the series DC loop 50. Referring now to FIG. 5, the distributionside 40 comprises two DC loads 420 and 422 and a three-phase AC load424, all connected in series.

An inverter 426 is required to convert DC to three phase AC to drive theAC load 424.

Input DC voltage delivered to a DC load is regulated using switchingregulator 428, which may be configured to boost up or buck down. A“flyback” switching regulator with a galvanic isolation transformer mayalso be used to isolate a load.

A bypass device or circuit 430 provides for continuous connection of theDC series loop 50 when loads 420, 422 and 424 are connected anddisconnected from the loop. Examples of a bypass device include atransistor, a thyristor or a mechanical switch.

Batteries may be selectively incorporated into the electrical energydelivery side 40. In its simplest form the battery comprises a seriesconnection of individual cells. The total battery voltage is slightlyless than the nominal DC link voltage to ensure that the diode 504 isreverse biased under normal conditions.

The structure of the series connected inverters 426 enables commonlyavailable storage batteries to be selectively incorporated throughoutthe energy delivery system, as shown in FIG. 6.

A nominal DC link voltage V_(n) is provided at the output of theconditioning circuit 46.

The battery 500 is connected to the DC link 502 of the inverter 426through a diode 504 that is arranged to be reverse biased, under normaloperating conditions, so that no current flows from the battery.

The battery 500 has charging controls 506 that provide a measured andcontrolled charging current to maintain the charge in the battery or torecharge the battery after a discharge cycle.

In the event that V_(n) falls below the battery voltage diode 504 willbecome forward biased, and the battery 500 will deliver energy tomaintain the normal operation of inverter 426. This provides “ridethrough” voltage support under fault conditions in the order of secondsor minutes.

New batteries are being developed and these are becoming available.These new types offer advantages with increased storage capacity, highercharging and discharging rates, and increased operating life orcharge/discharge cycles. Examples include Lithium Polymer and the AltairNano Lithium cell.

An alternative to batteries is super capacitors, which are becoming morereadily available. Super capacitors are high capacitance devices with alow voltage rating. The capacitors are arranged in bank, with series andparallel connections, to provide a suitable voltage rating and aggregateenergy storage capacity. Typically individual capacitors are availableas 3,000 Farad 2.8 volt units. Capacitor banks comprising 300 capacitorsseries connected (10 Farad) 750 volt with a discharge cycle between 5and 30 seconds are suitable for “ride through” support.

One difficulty when using capacitors is that the voltage on thecapacitor is proportional to the charge stored in the capacitor. As aresult a boost switching regulator is used to increases the voltage atdiode to maintain the reverse biased condition under normal operations,and to maintain the DC link voltage as the capacitor charge reduces.

It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that numerousvariations and modifications may be made to the invention as shown inthe specific embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope ofthe invention as broadly described. For instance, the total DC voltagemay be supplied directly as DC power to loads without the interventionof a three-phase AC electrical power grid.

Also, with reference to FIG. 7, inverters 426 on the energy deliveryside 40 may be arranged and connected to deliver aggregated energy to aload such as AC power distribution grid. The aggregation or summation ofplural parallel inverter outputs may be achieved by connecting pluralindividual inverters to individual primary windings 600 on amulti-primary winding transformer 602.

The individual inverters 426 may be synchronised to develop a sinusoidalvoltage on transformer secondary or load side winding. The invertercontrols modulate the DC link voltage with techniques including pulsewidth modulation, edge modulation, square wave or multilevel modulation.The inverters may either single phase (“H” bridge), three phase systemsor a combination of single and multi-phase inverters. The inverters maybe coordinated to operate in voltage summation mode with a commontransformer secondary winding 604.

Alternatively, the inverters may be coordinated to operate in a“parallel” or current summation mode by applying multiple transformerswith the secondary windings connected in parallel.

The multiple inverter connection enables the inverter outputs to bephase shifted to accommodate various transformer winding connections andvector groups on the primary or secondary side of the transformer. Themultiple inverter connection also enables the inverter outputs to beslightly phase shifted to cancel specific harmonic voltages.

The individual inverters conditioning circuit may include a voltageregulator to maintain a constant DC link voltage at the inverter. Thevoltage regulator may be a boost or buck switching regulator.

The invention claimed is:
 1. An electrical energy supply anddistribution system suitable for medium scale supply, comprising: (i) asupply side for supplying electrical energy, the supply side comprising:electrical AC energy generators to generate AC power; and a firstplurality of connection ports for selective connection to the electricalAC energy generators, each connection port in the first plurality ofconnection ports including an AC input to receive electrical AC energyfrom an electrical AC generator of the electrical AC generators, abipolar DC output to provide DC output power at a DC voltage, a bypassallowing direct current to flow through the connection port when nogenerator is connected at the AC input of the port, a rectifier bridgeto convert the AC power from the generator connected to the AC input ofthe port to DC power, and a switching regulator connected to therectifier bridge and to the DC output to control flow of power from theelectrical energy generator and to vary DC output voltage and DC outputpower; (ii) a delivery side for delivering electrical energy, thedelivery side comprising: electrical AC energy loads; and a secondplurality of connection ports for selective connection to the electricalAC energy loads, each connection port in the second plurality ofconnection ports including a bipolar DC input to receive DC input powerat a DC input voltage, an AC output to provide AC output power to theelectrical AC energy loads, a bypass allowing direct current to flowthrough the DC input of the port when no load is connected at the ACoutput of the port, a voltage regulator to maintain the DC input voltageconstant, a battery or super capacitor connected to an output of thevoltage regulator, and an inverter connected to the output of thevoltage regulator and to the AC output of the port to generate, and varythe AC output power and deliver the AC output power to the electrical ACenergy load connected at the port; wherein the DC outputs of the supplyside and the DC inputs of the delivery side are connected in series toform a direct current loop.
 2. The electrical energy supply anddistribution system according to claim 1, wherein all the firstplurality of connection ports for selective connection to the electricalAC energy generators are together on the supply side, and all the secondplurality of connection ports for selective connection to the electricalAC energy loads are together on the delivery side.
 3. The electricalenergy supply and distribution system according to claim 1, wherein thefirst plurality of connection ports for selective connection to theelectrical AC energy generators on the supply side and the secondplurality of connection ports for selective connection to the electricalAC energy loads on the delivery side are arranged in any order aroundthe direct current loop.
 4. The electrical energy supply anddistribution system according to claim 1, wherein the supply sidefurther comprises a galvanic isolation transformer connected between theelectrical AC energy and the rectifier bridge.
 5. The electrical energysupply and distribution system according to claim 1, wherein theelectrical generators are one or more of: a diesel power generator, amotor generator, a gas turbine, a tidal turbine generator, a steamturbine, or a reticulated supply.
 6. The electrical energy supply anddistribution system according to claim 1, wherein the rectifier bridgealso functions as an additional bypass to allow direct current to flowthrough the DC output of the connection port when the generator isremoved from the loop.
 7. The electrical energy supply and distributionsystem according to claim 1, further comprising a transformer connectedbetween the AC generator and the rectifier bridge.
 8. The electricalenergy supply and distribution system according to claim 1, wherein theelectrical generator is an asynchronous induction type generatorconnected with a reactive magnetizing power (VAR) generator.
 9. Theelectrical energy supply and distribution system according to claim 1,wherein the bypass for the electrical generator is a diode.
 10. Theelectrical energy supply and distribution system according to claim 1,wherein the voltage regulator is a flyback switching regulator.
 11. Theelectrical energy supply and distribution system according to claim 10,further comprising a galvanic isolation transformer to isolate a load.12. The electrical energy supply and distribution system according toclaim 1, wherein the bypass on the delivery side is a transistor, athyristor or a mechanical switch.
 13. The electrical energy supply anddistribution system according to claim 1 wherein the inverters of thedelivery side comprise plural parallel inverter outputs connected toindividual primary windings of a multi-primary winding transformer,synchronization circuitry to develop a sinusoidal voltage on a secondarywinding of the transformer, and the secondary winding of the multiprimary winding transformer connected to the AC energy load.